9/28/14

Hello!

This week was great! It flew by fast. I was in Oakland pretty much every day this week. For Transfers one day and then picking up the new missionary and then training the new missionaries after that! 

My companions name is Elder Weaver. He is from Las Vegas. His family actually moved a month before he left to Utah. He's a great person and loves to cook which I don't mind at all :) Elder Weaver and I are pretty much the same person, which is both good and bad. We are getting along well so far. He used to wrestle in High school, reminds me of Kevin.

Sad thing happened. Our "golden investigator" Moved back to upstate new york this week.. :( Sad. But now she is with her husband again and she's going to get baptized! So I'm happy I was able to be a part of teach her and getting to know her. 

The area around here is cooling off which is nice. Hopefully it doesn't get too cold because I don't want to wear a jacket while biking, I just get so sweaty wearing a jacket on bike. 

Its amazing I am reaching my last General Conference already, I remember my first as a missionary sitting in the Berkeley Chapel. One of the things I am going to focus on the most during General Conference this time is mainly how to improve my scripture study and prayer. I know that my patriarchal blessing has a lot to do with study and prayer so I hope to learn how to do it better.

I cant believe that its already October, its crazy. For my birthday, and for christmas I don't want anything. The reason being is anything that I get now I'm just going to have to pack up in a little while, and everything I have now is holding up so far, so I would like to save space and weight. Now if you aren't satisfied with that answer then, if you really want, I would love to maybe, kind of see how much a 9mm pistol would cost so I can start shooting when I'm back in Kentucky :D. 

Have a great week! Love you!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/23/14

Guess what!?

this week is transfer week so that might help in the guessing...

I'm getting a new companion and I'm staying out here in Brentwood. 

I'll be training again! I'm excited. Its going to be great.

Sadly I feel a little bit scarred from my first training experience. It was the hardest time of my mission. But as I look back on that time it was also the period where I grew the most. So whatever happens its going to work out. I don't know the area that well since I've only been here for 6weeks but I'll be able to learn how to read a map really well!

I don't know anything about who I am training. I go up to the mission home on Wednesday to pick him up. Fresh from the MTC! 

There is a facebook page called missionary momma's. A member took our picture and posted it on that web page and she invites you to check it out. 

Lately I have been trying to memorize scriptures. Its pretty hard for me because I'm not to good a memorizing stuff. I started with Romans 8:16 which roughly says The Spirit itself bearth witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

I think thats what it says I don't' have a bible with me. Well its a work in progress. 

Nothing else crazy is going on. General Conference is coming up woo hoo. 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/15/14

Wow Kate West is home thats crazy! I remember her preparing for a mission same time as I was. Time flies when your having fun.

Glad the family history thing worked out. Hopefully you can teach me sometime later.

Its been a hard week. My companion hasn't been to happy lately. I don't think its anything I have done but he gets super upset that people don't listen to us or they get angry at us. 

The weather has been pretty hot out here still. The nice thing is the heat doesn't really bother me that much so I'm fine with it. Its funny my companion sweats so much when he rides bike! He's just drenched wherever we go and has sweat stains all over his white shirts. 

Other then that nothing has been happening. We are thinking about dropping a lot of our investigators because none of them are progressing. But we will still keep in touch with them and follow up. 

doing great all is well have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/10/14

Wow thats so cool!

I'm so happy everything went well and thank you for the pictures.

Well, another week of not a lot happening so I'll see what I can do to lengthen it for you :)

I think the area is picking up a little bit. The last few weeks we found a few new investigators and one of them seems solid. She attended her step father-in-laws baptism this Saturday in Pleasington and then went to church on Sunday to see him confirmed. We'll be seeing her Thursday so we'll see how it went for her. Still talking to a lot of people.

We have Zone Training Meeting this coming Tuesday. Its so nice not doing those anymore. I know exactly how it feels for them to be up there giving the training. 

Learned some more stuff in my studies but I forgot at the moment which is a bummer. 

One of the members out here was born and raised in Kentucky! But he's 80yrs old and we wouldn't know him.

I find that I hate down time in the apartment. My mind wanders and I just get distracted when its either lunch or dinner or pday and we have nothing to do so I either sit down and study something interesting like Jesus the Christ or I go clean something. The past week i've been working on cleaning out all of the dust from the air conditioner and today i bought some windex so we can clean off all of the mirrors, which there are a lot of in this apartment. Also got some bleach so hopefully my white clothes will be looking a little more.... white :)

We had a week full of no dinner appointments so we had a lot of down time at the apartment eating cereal haha. This sunday we looked on our dinner calender after church and we saw it was another week of no one feeding us and the bishops wife saw that and ran around the stragglers in the church still their and was asking everyone to feed us. Amazingly she got the whole week signed up for us! Darn I won't have as much time cleaning the apartment then or studying!

Well were doing great out here! Hope all goes well with the other doctor this week! I've lost track of which doctors are doing what! But it sounds like they are making some improvements!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

9/1/14

So today since its Labor Day we biked up to the stake center to do emails. Its fun. I really love biking!

So glad to hear that Dad is going to be able to sleep better and have more energy! 

Were still talking to everyone out here.

We received a referral from some of the other missionaries in our mission this week. A 22 year old lady is living here and has a bunch of friends who are mormons and she wants to know more. Her husband is mormon, he is in New York in as a flight medic for the military. She is going to her Father in Laws baptism this coming Saturday in Pleasington too! And guess what she has a 10 month old son who looks so much like grant it was awesome! Sadly as missionaries we aren't allowed to hold kids but hes so cool! We are seeing her every Thursdays and Fridays, and she has work off today so were going to see her today to! She is practically asking to be baptized the only problem is she works every Sunday! Were going to invite her today to be baptized and I'm sure we can figure out a way for her to come to church. The sad thing is I'm sure she will want to go out to New York to be there with her Husband when she is baptized. Hopefully he can fly out here! She is actually planning on going back to New York in a few months she doesn't know exactly when though.

Thanks for everything hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ranquist

8/25/14

Sorry I didn't tell you last week but Today we went to the temple so we email today. Hopefully you weren't freaking out that I didn't send an email yesterday. I love going to the temple. Sadly we saw the really old version of the movie this time and not the newest one. Oh well its still great. Since I'm out in Antioch its a really long drive to get to the temple so we were actually late to our session (along with almost all the rest of the zone) so we actually combined our zone,with Walnut Creek zone, 2 of the biggest zones in the mission. So there were about 70 missionaries in the session and a few other people. it was great I've never been in such a large session. Also it was good to see former companions and people I knew. I never see any missionaries now that I'm out in Brentwood. 

So cool to be able to have Elder Doney there. Although I think it is really weird.

Sadly I didn't feel the earthquake. I wish I did that would be so fun. I was hoping "The Big One" would hit but I don't expect it too. 

Thankfully I am starting to get to know the area a little bit better. It was rough the first week here we always would get lost. Thankfully we have good old maps to help us out!

We don't have a lot of investigators here and the ones we do have are pretty flaky and don't come to church or keep their commitments. We're working on it. We have a goal of oym's (Open Your Mouth) mission wide of talking to 10 people per missionary per day. Meaning reaching 140 oym's by the end of the week and so far we are doing well at it. We have been talking to a little more than 140 a week. Trying to find new investigators that way. 

Have a great week! Thank you for the picture!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

8/18/14

So, My new companion is named Elder Young. He actually lived in Hawaii and went to BYU-Hawaii before coming out. He has a twin sister but shes not active in the church and neither is his mom. He grew up going to church with his grandma and decided to go on a mission. He is a fanominal missionary. I don't even feel like i'm training him. We're just doing missionary work. Sadly its really hard right now because both of us don't know the area at all. We keep on getting lost and going the wrong way. At least were are using that opportunity to then talk to people on the streets. I think the hardest thing is that Elder Young has a severe case of ADHD so its hard to stay on track and get things done but were working through it. 

One cool think that happened is, when I walked into church this Sunday I saw some old members that used to live in the San Leandro ward I used to serve in over a year ago. So at least I know one family already. This ward here seems really great. They feed us every day for dinner and whenever we are hot they have members signed up to keep cold water bottles in their fridge for us so we can stop by any time and get some. They also have cold water bottles stocked in the fridge of the church building so we should be ok. I already bought 2 insulated water bottles myself before I got transferred here but I don't carry them with me because I don't want them getting stolen when I leave my bike locked up somewhere and we have plenty of water given to us by members.

 Tuesday, Transfer day was really saddening for me. I LOVED!  being a zone leader in Union City. While we were driving out here to Brentwood I felt sad knowing I won't ever be able to do something like that again. I also felt a burden lifted from my shoulders which felt good i guess, but i loved it so much there. As I was thinking about it I feel like it taught me a lesson. I may have loved an area, or a companion, or members, but I am in a new area now and I have a chance to love a new area, companion, or members! Where ever I go I want that to be my favorite place at that time and not wishing to go back to a different place.

Also I am district Leader over the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders and they don't have any problems, they are amazing missionaries so it makes my life a lot easier! Akuna matata- a stress free philosophy! I like it a lot, I don't have to stress out about other missionaries disobedience. 

have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

Letter from one of Jonathan's Investigators

Mr. and Mrs. Guerrero,

I just wanted to thank you for everything you both have done for me.  I am sorry I took so long to respond, but it was because I wanted to share an experience or enlightenment with you.  I want to express my background in why I wanted to be blessed. 

If Gabe has not told you, I have had a rough two years.  After I graduated college, I found out I had an extra nerve in my heart.  I always had palpitations but they were misdiagnosed as anxiety for 10 years.  I was excited to finally see the real problem and solve it.  Immediately doctors and I decided that surgery would be best to fix this.  A week after I found out that I needed heart surgery, I found out that someone had stolen my identity.  Nothing like fixing your credit haha.  I had my surgery 2 months later.  And that’s where things got tough.  My surgery took 3 times as long as it was supposed to, they gave me a lot of adrenaline to get my heart going fast to perform the surgery, and I was awake the whole time.  After the surgery I felt so sick, I wasn’t fed all day, no water or food, and as soon as I got out I had gone into panic.  I finally calmed down hours later, but the next day got even crazier, I almost passed out while I was leaving the hospital! Luckily they caught me and saved me.  It was due to dehydration and stress.  It took some time but I got out later that day. It took me weeks longer than the average person to recover.  And not only did my heart change, but my mentality did too. 

My body had changed, and I felt like I was relearning myself.  Things I was able to do before I couldn’t.  And I possibly pushed myself too far too soon, thinking I could physically do the same things.  But after time I realized that my mind was holding me back too.  After some instances where I found myself struggling, feeling weak, like going to a baseball game or road trips to LA at the beginning of my recovery, I took that with me every time I went back to a game or LA.  Going to Giants FanFest a month after my surgery was probably a very bad idea.  And I felt the consequences on my body.  But that scared me to doing more after.  Every time I went to a baseball game, I thought, will I feel like I will pass out again, will the heat get to me? And that fear, still stays with me, and it has been a year.  I feel like I have been re-discovering my body, but my mentality is holding me back from moving forward.

 I tried talking to therapists about it, sought holistic help, but it has been a rough journey.  After I was getting in a better place, mentally, things were getting great, I dislocated my shoulder.  Of course, once I was getting on my feet and getting into a sport, softball, I dislocate my shoulder and it turned into a huge mess.  It popped out shoulder blades, messed with my rotator cuff, messed up my neck. Doctors that I was seeing either were not helping or were causing other things to happen and I didn’t trust anyone.  Then things became more insane recently, I went to the ER. I found myself having heart palpitations.  It was not like before, but I could not stop them.  Worried, I went to the ER. I was thinking to myself, I went through so much and now, my heart palpitates again, I thought they said it was a success? I was nervous and worried, reliving all of my moments at the hospital.  It turned out I was not having heart problems like I did before my surgery (surgery worked!), I was actually having minor problems deriving from having bronchitis and asthma.  Was not sure if it was good news or not, but I accepted it.  That was then followed by discovering I showed minor problems with my thyroid. And that is when Gabe I think realized I needed some light in my life. Haha.  The past two years have felt like a nightmare, I haven’t felt like myself, I am not comfortable anymore.  I hope for the best every day, but I think the worrying gets to me.  But I can’t blame myself, things happen. 

To be honest, my religious background is very dismal.  My father is Christian, but not practicing.  He used to go to church alone as a teenager, it helped him through some tough times with family.  My mother, well that side does not believe in much.  Myself, well I do believe in God, a higher power.  I have some family members, who are Mormon, and I see their desire to help, they are just the nicest people I know.  And I’m not saying that because they are family, haha.  Something about Mormonism (if that’s how you would say it) is so pure.  Everyone is there for each other and it is really a community who have common beliefs and my family has always admired that.  When Gabe kept asking me about the blessing, at first, I was hesitant.  I kept thinking, it’s not that serious, I don’t need help, it’s ok, it’s more of a hassle than it is worth.  But the more and more things kept happening, I thought, maybe this is the right thing for me to do.  My mom was nervous and skeptical, but at this point she just wanted to see me happy.  I was feeling the same way, but something kept telling me that this was the right thing to do.

When you all came over, I thought, wow, this is definitely different.  I have walked into a church 3 times in my life, two baptisms and once for Gabe’s mission speech.  Although, this was in my house, I have never understood the spirit or felt anything for that matter.  I was really glad you performed the blessing, because it helped me feel more relaxed and actually listen to the blessing.  When it began, I was trying to call out to God myself and my Grandpa who passed away almost 10 years ago.  In my toughest times I usually call on him to be there for me, to help calm me down. Crazy thing was, I felt like someone was kneeling next to me, like a hand on my knee, calming me down.  No one was there, the air was not windy, and it felt like a hand on my knee, I think and hope it was my Grandpa there in support.  As the blessing kept going, hands above my head, I was listening to every word, but more importantly I felt every word.  The sentences were strong, feelings backed up every syllable.  You were not just spitting out words, I could feel the meaning behind everything.  I felt like, something had overtaken you, and you were just the messenger. And I know Gabe told me it is like that, but to actually feel that was amazing.  The most important part for me was two sentences I remember the most.  One was that every challenge I am currently facing is to build me up stronger for something more important.  I read something once that said; God gives tough challenges to those he knows can handle them.  And I know that everything I am going through serves a purpose, and I hope one day to find that purpose and use it to my fullest potential.  The other sentence that struck with me was, to give my parents the power to understand and support me through these tough times.   My mom takes everything pretty hard.  After I was like 13 and fell and jammed my shoulder, she didn’t believe I actually had anything wrong, until we went to the doctors and she saw my x-ray, then she promised to never take anything I said lightly when it came to medical problems.  She has been with me through every up and down, she tries hard to calm me down, I’m her only child and through her recent divorce I know things are tough for her.  I wish I could help her more, but sometimes I struggle to be there for myself. So I am glad that the blessing was also for my parents too. 

After the blessing, I was just taking everything in.  I didn’t feel too emotional, because I was taking everything in.  I was remembering the words said, and thinking where it would affect me next.  I guess I also didn’t know how to react.  This is very new to me, the whole religion thing.  I was very spiritual with God and my Grandpa before, but I realized I would only call on them for my dark times.  And I think that is where I was speaking to God wrong.  I wasn’t listening to him, I was always asking him.  Maybe that is my only child syndrome, getting anything I asked for haha.  But the blessing really helped me understand my problems now and enlighten me for the future.  I had this sense of calm for a couple of weeks after the blessing.  I felt at ease, even though I still had pain, I felt calm.  And that really helped me out more than anything.

I decided to change some things in my life.  I keep a journal to document everyday highs and lows.  I thank God for my blessings and ask to watch over my family and friends.  I still get in to pickles with myself mentally, but physically, things are getting better and I understand my body better. The doctors are actually helping now, I am getting the right tools, and my lab tests (knock on wood) are seeing good results.  I still need to work on things but I realized that there will come a time and I will have some mental break through, because I have before, where nothing will get in the way of me bettering myself.  I guess my biggest hurdle is myself.  And I can only ask God to help teach me patience and strength.  Going back to the journal, it is funny because some of the things I notice I have already asked God to help me with or show me something, have already worked and he has helped. 

I am so happy that you helped me out in a time in my life I felt the weakest and loneliest.  You truly are a blessing to my life and I am happy to help you out anytime.  I don’t know if I would be joining a religion soon, but I will continue to believe and support.  Thank you for everything, I am sorry I took so long to write, but I wanted to give you both a journey of what I felt and went through after the blessing.

Thank you again,

Whitney

8/4/14

Hello!

This week was a rough week. Not a lot of missionary work happened and we ended up dropping 6 of our investigators. But these emails really helped! Thank you. And Dad thank you for your email it really helped out. We also got an email from a non member this week. An interesting story but I would like to forward you the email that they sent. A little bit of the back ground of the story is we were called by a few members living out of our area and they asked if we could help them give a blessing to a non member. This non member is about 20yrs old and she has a friend serving a mission, and that is her affiliation with the church. Her friend on a mission suggested she gets a priesthood blessing because she is going through a lot of trials as you can read in the email and it was a great experience! Hopefully the spirit touches her to learn more and be taught by us. Its a long email but it has a great story.

Thank you for the white shirts! I tried taking a picture of them next to my old ones but you couldn't really notice in a picture so i deleted it. 

We had a great Fast and Testimony meeting this Sunday. A Teacher got up and bore his testimony and talked about how the last few months he hasn't wanted to go to church and he was hurting his family and they were going through struggles and he found out how obedience to his family changed his life. 

We ended up teaching Elders Quorum this sunday after being asked Saturday evening. It was rough but we just talked about missionary work. of course! 

Well this is the last week of the transfer. We will be getting transfer calls this Saturday night. Oh boy. I don't know whats going to happen. 

Have a great week. I love you!

Love,

Elder Ranquist

7/28/14

Another great week flew by! 

We had 2 exchanges this week which always makes the week go by a lot faster. And we had our stake meeting with the stake presidency, mission president and high councilmen over missionary work there. It was a great meeting, but very very stressful because we know the missionary work is not were it could be or should be so we were talking a lot about that. Other then that it wasn't a really exciting week. None of our investigators came to church which was sad. We went to the VIsitor Center with an investigator. He is going to get baptized he just need to come to church 3 times. Lately he has been called to work and this week he was out of town. We have faith in him though.  Also one of our new investigators, James is doing well. He is very interesting. He is an intern for a pharmacy company. Hes going to get he PHD in bio engineering. Very smart. He is literately investigating the church. He comes to church and writes notes down of what people say. Thankfully hes grown up somewhat religious so he still has that side of him but i still think he might want to think of it more logically.

We have been biking a lot lately. It helps a lot to talk to people. But, when we bike my tire seems to be attracted to thorns on the path. Both of my tires has about 5 or 6 patches on them. My back tire is still leaking slowly. 

Every wednesday we have a book of Mormon class. We just read the book of mormon and talk about what went on. Not a lot of people attend so we are think about shutting it down but i like it a lot. 

Elder Craft is from Portland Oregon (actually Damascus) his dad is actually the stake president there. He just had his hump day (What missionaries call their year mark) Thursday. Our stake held a pioneer day party Saturday which was fun. Lots of good food :D

Sincerely,

Elder Ranquist

Letter to Jonathan from Dad

I have attached a portion of the letter I'm sending to Jonathan where he asked for a story from his family where the Lord guided them. I know that you used heard this story before but I thought you might like to have it in writing.

Love,

Dad

Dear Son,

Once you asked for a story from each of us about where we felt the Lord had guided us. The story I would like to share deals with me getting out of the military and getting the job at UPS. As a pilot in the Air Force, we had a seven year commitment after pilot training to pay the Air Force back for the money that they spent on training us.  Six years into the commitment, my career and life was going very well. We were living in Germany, Stephanie had finally gotten pregnant, and I was an instructor in C-130s. Our commander, Col. Williams, came to me one day and asked if I would go back to the United States and take some tactical training about using night vision goggles flying low levels during the nighttime. I would then return back to the unit and train everyone else in what I had learned. It was an honor that he came and asked me because there were many other instructors he could've asked and the training sounded very fun.  At the time I was trying to make the decision whether I would stay in the military and make it a career or get out and fly for the commercial airlines. My dream was to fly for Delta out of Salt Lake City so I could finally live by my family. I had never lived by my brothers and sister my entire life that I could remember. My brother Ross and Dennis and my sister Karla lived in the Salt Lake area as well as my parents. What a great opportunity that would be to create some relationships that I always wanted to. So at that time I was strongly leaning towards getting out of the military to try to make that dream come true. Why this is important is that the tactical training my commander wanted me to do would add just six weeks to my seven year commitment. That seemed like nothing but, for some reason I felt very uncomfortable about adding those six weeks. I prayed and fasted about what I should do because it did not make any sense that staying in the military for an additional six weeks could make any difference in my life. This feeling just did not go away so finally I had to go to Col. Williams and explained that I was a religious man and for some reason I just did not feel good about doing the training. To say the least he was very disappointed and could not understand why I was refusing this. In fact, he threatened me that he would just ground me for my remaining year and not let me fly at all if I didn't do this training.  I stuck to my guns and refused to go. It turned out that his threat was not real because we were so short of instructors that I had to fly constantly to do the training the squadron needed. But my relationship with Col. Williams turn negative that last year which I still regret to this day. So, my focus then turn towards getting out of the military and finding a job in the civilian flying sector. I went to my Stake President, which was easy at the time because I was a High Councilman, and asked for a blessing about what I should do and where I should go after leaving the military. In that blessing he promised that I would fly for my career, which gave me great comfort. It turned out that the war to Iraq started the following summer. I was to get out the military on July 31, 1990 and my unit was activated to go to that war on August 6. If I had taken that six-week extension I would've had to go to war,which lasted a few years, because the military canceled all discharges until the end of the war. When I officially got out of the military on July 31, 1990, the airlines were still hiring and I got a job with UPS (That is another story about being guided by The Lord).  After the war was over there were not any airline jobs to be had and many of my friends had to find other type of work in a poor economy that did not pay very well. The Lord watched over me and guided me in my decision not to do that training because that six weeks made all the difference in the world to the future of my family and going where the Lord wanted me to go.


Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926–2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once said: “The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well".

I have a testimony that the Lord loves each of us and will guide us if we remain faithful and do what he has asked us to do. I have been extremely blessed in my life, more than I deserve. My children are wonderful and I am very proud of each one of them.  I'm grateful that they have chosen to all follow the Savior and pray that they will be open to his guiding hand so that the Lord will be able to place them in that orbit which He has chosen.

7/25/14

That sounds so fun! And I'm glad Dad is getting things worked on.

This week flew by so fast... again

Im doing well!

Well, a miracle we had last week was when a random person called us. This member called us because one of his work mates tolked to him about how we, the missionaries, invited him to church on sunday and he was thinking about coming. He stayed at church for all 3 hours and took notes on things people said. He says he wants to keep on coming back and learning. 

Thank you for the shirts! I don't know of anything else I need. 

this is the message our president sent us this week, basically summarizing our mission leadership council (My mom asked him to tell her more about what the mission president said to them. Instead of summarizing, he sent this attachment, haha) 

President Meredith

Dear Missionaries,
As the Mission Leadership Council discussed how we can raise our vision and improve our performance we decided on three primary things we felt all of us in this mission could focus on. One was spending more time focused on our testimony of the work and the miracles that occur all around us. Second was to focus on the “why” of obedience, and third was to consecrate ourselves as mission leaders and invite others to join us in this effort.

In that regard, I invite all of you to join the Mission Leadership Council in reading the article your mission leaders will provide this week, if it hasn’t already been provided. It is a talk given at the MTC by Elder Tad R. Callister of the Seventy, on becoming a consecrated missionary. Please read that talk before Sunday and then join us in fasting for the inspiration to know what we should each do, and the faith and strength to do it. Then as you attend the Temple during August, I would invite you to focus on the covenants of sacrifice and consecration that you have made with God in His holy house.

As I have thought about these things, I remembered a talk by President Uchtdorf, given in the Woman’s session of General Conference in October 2011. I have quoted parts of that talk below:

“Sometimes, in the routine of our lives, we unintentionally overlook a vital aspect of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In our diligent efforts to fulfill all of the duties and obligations we take on as members of the Church, we sometimes see the gospel as a long list of tasks that we must add to our already impossibly long to-do list,. We focus on what the Lord wants us to do and how we might do it, but we sometimes forget why.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not an obligation; it is a pathway, marked by our loving Father in Heaven, leading to happiness and peach in this life and glory and inexpressible fulfillment in the life to come.
While understanding the “what” and the “how” of the gospel is necessary, the eternal fires and majesty of the gosplel springs from the “why”. When we understand why our Heavenly Father has given us this pattern for living, when we remember why we committed to making it a foundational part of our lives, the gospel ceases to become a burden and, instead, becomes a joy and a delight. It becomes precious and sweet.
Let us not walk the path of discipleship with our eyes on the ground, thinking only of the tasks and obligations before us. Let us not walk unaware of the beauty of the glorious earthly and spiritual landscapes that surround us.
The “what” and “how” of obedience mark the way and keep us on the right path. They “why” of obedience sanctifies our actions, transforming the mundane into the majestic. It magnifies our small acts of obedience into holy acts of consecration.”

Elders and Sisters, we invite you to join us in a month of becoming more consecrated.

President Meredith

7/14/14

This week went by so fast! Really I don't have a lot to say, but I'll say something because I don't want you to be upset!

 

We had Mission Leadership CouncilTuesday which is one of the most powerful meetings a missionary can go to. It’s so awesome! Then we had Interviews with our Mission PresidentThursday which was great! And then we had exchanges with the Assistants which we loved as well. 

So I talked to President Meredith during interviews about college and he has allowed me to look at colleges now. Really, I don't know what I want. It’s going to take a lot of prayer and study and thought. It’s a life changing decision. But right now I’m called to serve a mission so I will focus on that!

 

By the way Elder Craft and I have so much fun. We are doing great!

 

We have Zone Training Meeting this Tuesday and Zone Leadership Council. Yay more meetings to go to! :) 

 

My trainer, Elder Doney, is coming to Louisville, Kentucky in a few weeks! He will be selling pest control there. I believe he would love a place to stay while he's out there. Maybe he can stay with you guys? He's awesome. He might be calling you soon.

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

Jonathan with the parents of a family in our ward! Both missionaries in the same place

7/7/14 Fantastic Fourth

Last Monday, I was able to get in contact with a recent convert from Berkeley. That was really nice! Other than that miracle it was a pretty rough week. I literally had people yelling/spitting at my face, an hour and a half of someone ripping our faith apart using the Bible, and other experiences as we were talking to people! We are all right. After the "Bible study," I guess you can call it, it was a little shakening but it helped my determination.

 

This week is going to be a busy week. We have Mission Leadership Counciltomorrow, President Interview Thursday, and Exchanges with the Assistants on Friday night to Saturday night. We have a great week planned out. We are planning on teaching over 30 lessons even with all of these things happening.We're really excited. 

 

I’m really surprised at how well you took me going into the Army. I will continue to pray about it and see if that is what I should go into. 

 

I'm not sure about the driver’s license,what I'm going to do with that. 

 

Personally, I would like to fly home because I really don't want to be so restricted for 7- 10 days. I wouldn't be able to hold Grant as a missionary! But I think you would love coming out here (especially the weather during winter time) and I would love to see the whole family and I don't see that happening if I go straight home and have to wait until Igo out to Utah for school. I'll pray about it.

 

Thanks for your love and support!

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

 

7/1/14

Wow, July 4th already! I can still remember the last email about the Blackwells.

 

So transfers. I am staying in Union City!! AGAIN. There are actually 3 Zone Leaders who have stayed in their area for as long as I have (6 transfers.) Me,my MTC companion Elder Watkins, and Elder Hill. I wonder what’s going to happen. This transfer theAssistant up in Oakland is ending his mission so all the Zone Leaders are on edge for next transfer if they get the call. I’m not on edge though. I don't have that many transfers left and President needs someone up there longer than that. I’m so glad I am staying here inHayward. I love it here. The members are so great. 

 

I'm not sure if you really want to know what I changed to other then fire fighting. Well, I still plan on going to Utah Valley University, but I am not exactly sure what I want to study. I am planning on going into the ArmyROTC and serving in the Army for my career. I am thinking of going into the Airborne Army Rangers. I think that’s a big change from fire fighting. Right now I am serving the Lord though! It was interesting I have thought about it for a little while. A few months ago, I switched from fire fighter to going into the Marines, but UVU doesn’t have a Marine ROTC and I would rather be an officer in the military than enlisted so I changed to Army Rangers and then my new companion, Elder Craft, is actually planning on goingto BYU for Army ROTC which is funny. 

 

Anyway, after I freaked mom out! :P We had an amazing blessing happen to us this week! So sisters in Castro Valley, north of us, had a person come to church last week who was a girl friend of a memberso they decided to set up a lesson with her. Little did they know she lives in Union City which is perfect for us! So we went over and taught her and her roommate joined in on the lesson! We started out getting to know her and found out that her parents died when she was only 2 years old so she doesn't know them and she grew up being pretty much abused. Her boy friend’s grandpa actually passed away recently as well so we decided to switch from teaching lesson 1, the Restoration, to Lesson 2 thePlan of Salvation. At the end of it, she was really excited to know that she could see her parents again! We all felt the spirit in the lesson and invited her right there to be baptized and she was very enthusiastic. In fact, her roommate actually asked if she could be baptized too and we said yes you can! It was a great first lesson. 

 

We also found a new investigator through some lessactives. They took us out to In and Out and we had a lesson. I am sick of fast food, my body just can’t handle it anymore. I don't throw up, but my stomach gets so upset. I can't believe I survived working atArby's for so long. 

 

I'll talk to the mission home about going to get my license extended or get a California license, which I think would be cool, but I think it might be a little more expensive. I'll see what they suggest and go from there. The date that I leave my mission is January 28th 2015.

 

Have a great week! I love you.

 

A few things before I forget. 

1. The credit card that goes to your account is broken I never used it, never had to, but I still think it would be nice to have one for emergencies.

2.  Could you send out a few more white shirts, short sleeved. A few of my shirts are ripping and they don't look great.

3.  Also a question I was pondering over this week has been what has been some of the hardest times in your life and how did the Lord help you get through them?

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

 

6/24/14

Well, we don't really cook that much. The most I have made is Fried Rice, or Pancakes. 

 

Lately, part of our zone gets together and plays soccer or ultimate Frisbee in a park for our p-days.

 

As we teach about the Holy Ghost, they just think of him as a spirit that makes you feel good, we have to teach them that the Holy Ghost gives you answers to your prayers. 

 

A great missionary experience we had last week happened Monday. We got a HQ referral and set up a lesson with him for six o’clock. We looked up his address and found that he was out of our area and gave it to those missionaries who went by and scheduled a different time to meet. Well, that meant that we had 6 o’clock open so my companion called a potential investigator who stopped us on the street the week before and wanted to know more. My companion asked if we would be able to set up an appointment to teach and he said, “Sure, why not now. I can head over there in 5 minutes.” So, we got there and had a great lesson with him. He explained to us that he has been searching for the right church.He brought up 5 churches that he has been searching/investigating and said how he found out that they were all wrong. By the end of it we invited him to be baptized with a baptismal date and heaccepted!

 

I was able to go on exchanges with the Assistants this week who serve in Oakland. I felt at home there. I served in the San Leandro ward, which covered WestOakland, a different area than the Assistants, but while I was there I just grew to love it. I don't feel like Union City is my home, but I have spent the same amount of time here.

 

Oh, you bring up Fire Fighting. I probably won’t go into it as a career. I have changed on my mission. 

 

Have a great week! This week is Transfer calls so by next Monday I will know if I am staying here or going to be transferred. I think that I might be, but I really hope I don't though. I love it here!

 

Love,

Elder Ranquist

 

6/17/14

Happy Fathers Day!

I never thought I would say this.... Thank you for all the correction you gave me. I see now how correction shows your love for that person. As a missionary especially as a leader we have many opportunities to correct others disobedience. I'm just so glad I haven't had a problem with those things because I know of an example that has helped me see the positive in being obedient. I see families who don't correct their children and it just doesn't seem right. I know it wasn't easy for you as i would act... immaturely or rudely. All of those times that I mistreated both of you. All of the silent days that I wouldn't talk ha ha. I thank you for the sacrifice you have done for me. I have really become a better person because of your example. I really do look forward to strengthening my family relationship! And modeling my family after the one I grew up in. Because I love my family and I love you Dad!

Love: Elder Jonathan Clark Ranquist

6/11/14

Hello!

I wish I could have been there! 

Zone Conference went well this time. I really enjoyed it! I was able to see the Sawayas There and they took a picture of all 3 of us and going to send it to you. Also the Senior couple that served with you in the Temple took pictures of all 3 of us as well! Im improving! More like others are doing my job.

For zone Conference we had to give a training on 4 things we need a testimony of. 1. A testimony of the Book of Mormon 2. Testimony of the 1st vision 3. Testimony of the Priesthood 4. Testimony of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It was good I really liked it. 

Its been really sad this transfer. We haven't been able to meet with our investigators! We were able to still have 2 investigators at church yesterday and a recent convert brought his daughter with him. We have a lesson set up tonight with one of our investigators so hopefully we will be picking that up again. Its been pretty depressing not being able to teach our investigators but they are still coming to church which is great! We really need to find more new investigators. It really isn't easy, but its worth it when you do.

Happy Fathers day!

Love,

 Elder Ranquist

6/4/14

 

Elder Craft and I get along very well.

1. We love bikes

2. Eating habits

3. Future Occupation

4. Patriotic

5. Music Styles

6. Personality

And many, many more. 

He even is thinking about going to UVU.

 

There were a lot of miracles this week! Elder Craft and I were talking to everyone we saw. Now that we are really trying to bike as much as possible,at the end of the week, random people were coming up and talking to us! A few people said that they were interested inbecoming Christians. It was great! This week Elder Craft and I are just trying to put our all in to being examples to theZone. It’s been hard, but worth it. We’re just trying to inspire the other missionaries by showing them that it’s possible. 

And another miracle this week: we were able to do some service for someone moving and we were able to rip a table out of his wall. Love destroying things :)

 

I don't have my camera this week. (I usually just keep in in the apartment :) I'll try to remember to bring it next time and take some pictures with it. I was wondering if you might be able to email some pictures of when we went to China. At every dinner appointment we have 4 Chinese speaking missionaries with us (so 6 missionaries total, 2 of them are from Hong Kong) and I want to show them some pictures of when we went there before, a long, long time ago. 

 

Have a great week! Continue enjoying the Temple! And enjoy the new windows! I'm sure I'll find a way to breakthe cross hatching somehow :).... But it might be a little more expensive if it actually happens. 

 

Love,

 

Elder Ranquist

5/26/14

Yes the pictures did come through,thank you! And I always have been in Union City ever since I left San Leandro (Which was December 1st). I am the Zone Leader over the Hayward Zone though. ET's are Emergency Transfers. 

This week has been amazing! My new companion, Elder Craft, is almost exactly like me. We are having so much fun together. I think I have grown closer to him than any of my companions and I've only been with him for a week. We are doing a lot of work as well.

A miracle we saw this week happened to us last night. We were talking to people next to a dollar store and decided it wasn't the right place so we started to walk to the Bart station. We found a man sitting by himself on a bench and started to talk to him. He opened up saying how his son, who is my age, was just sent to prison for 25 years and how he lost his job and got divorced and is living with his youngest sister for a day and is having a horrible time right now. All Elder Craft and I did was bear testimony to him of how Heavenly Father loves him and wants him to be happy. By the end of us talking to him he accepted to be baptized June 21st, gave us his full name, accepted a return appointment, and wants to come to church next Sunday. It was an amazing miracle that we were blessed to be a part of!

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Ranquist